runninghoove
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Strange duplicate "Documents" folder suddenly appeared in Windows Vista, how to delete just one Folder without deleting its identical twin?
HELP!! Identical duplicate directory of 'Documents' folder suddenly appeared in Windows Vista and I can't get rid of the new one without also deleting the original!
Okay, I know it may be a long explanation, but I want you to get the whole picture without me having to repost several times trying to clarify my issue.
I am hoping somebody out there has an idea how to solve this bizarre issue, I booted and logged into my Dell Vostro PC this morning to find my 'Documents' folder had somehow replicated itself. I figured this was some strange reference file or pointer to my usual 'Documents' folder in my non-roaming profile.
Later that day, I cut and pasted 7 gigabytes worth of ski trip videos from my HD cam into an empty folder I named "Ski Trip Videos" which ended up with a 7.3 GB total size.
Out of curiosity, I decided to check the OTHER strange new 'Documents' that had appeared this morning and lo and behold, I noticed all the videos were ALSO listed in the new replicated 'Documents' folder?! I thought that very odd since I only pasted the videos into ONE of the 'Documents' folders. Now the total size of BOTH "My Videos" folders equaled 14.6 gigs of space, that being an EXACT DUPLICATE set of the same videos in BOTH 'Documents' folders.
Not wanting to waste all that space with duplicates, I did what anyone probably would and deleted the EXTRA DUPLICATE set of videos that appeared in one of the replicated 'Documents' folders, then went to the original Documents folder where I put the original set of videos and the videos were GONE in this folder too?!!! What the crap is going on here?!
Now my videos are gone from both Documents folders with no backup since I cut and pasted them from my camera to the Documents folder and ran Crap Cleaner when I deleted the DUPLICATE SET because it was taking up nearly 15 GIGS of space, not just 7.2 as it should have.
Here's my question: somehow I have 2 EXACT LINKED & REPLICATED 'Documents' folders in my Administrator Profile (the one I normally use) and any file I create or delete or modify in one Documents folder, also gets created, deleted or modified in the other 'Documents' folder, is if its somehow synchronizing between the two separate 'Documents' folders. Since each 'Documents' folder is now a clone of each other, the total space that my 'Documents' takes on my hard drive is DOUBLE!!
So how do I figure out which 'Documents' folder is the 'new rouge folder' that appeared this morning (both have identical created & modified time/date stamps) and is making duplicates of any file I tinker with and delete the spare Documents folder, WITHOUT ALSO DELETING the original 'Documents' folder since both 'Documents' folders act like conjoined twins, each folder independently taking up its own space and sectors on my hard drive yet at the same time, acting like one massive unit inseparable?
I've put up some screenshots to help illustrate this double 'Documents' mess if anyone knows about this or can help me figure out a solution or workaround, dunno if its related to a corrupted profile or what, but I'm not running any RAID so I know that's not what it is. I just want to figure this out before it turns into another 'Vista spiral of death sysndrome' before I'm forced into doing something drastic (ie; reformat, upgrade to Windows 7 or switch to a MAC everyone nags me to do!).
Thank you anyone, everyone for helping me with this, you are my only hope! :)
Some Basic SysInfo (if it helps any):
OS: Windows Vista Professional v6.0.6002 Service Pack 2 (Build v6002)
Processor: Dual Core Intel Pentium CPU E2220 @ 2.40GHz
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 8.00 GB DDR Corsair
Boot Device: \Device\HarddiskVolume1 (C:)
Logical Devices: (D:, E:, F:, G:)
RAID: False
System Directory: C:\Windows\System32
Page File: G:\pagefile.sys (64 GB solid-state hdd - dedicated)
GPU: Dell NVIDIA GeForce 9800 (1.00 GB RAM [1,073,741,824 bytes])
DualDocuments.JPG
SizePropertiesOfOneFolderOnly.JPG
SizePropertiesOfBothFoldersCombi.JPG
IdenticalContents.JPG
IdenticalContentsButStill2Seprat.JPG
Okay, I know it may be a long explanation, but I want you to get the whole picture without me having to repost several times trying to clarify my issue.
I am hoping somebody out there has an idea how to solve this bizarre issue, I booted and logged into my Dell Vostro PC this morning to find my 'Documents' folder had somehow replicated itself. I figured this was some strange reference file or pointer to my usual 'Documents' folder in my non-roaming profile.
Later that day, I cut and pasted 7 gigabytes worth of ski trip videos from my HD cam into an empty folder I named "Ski Trip Videos" which ended up with a 7.3 GB total size.
Out of curiosity, I decided to check the OTHER strange new 'Documents' that had appeared this morning and lo and behold, I noticed all the videos were ALSO listed in the new replicated 'Documents' folder?! I thought that very odd since I only pasted the videos into ONE of the 'Documents' folders. Now the total size of BOTH "My Videos" folders equaled 14.6 gigs of space, that being an EXACT DUPLICATE set of the same videos in BOTH 'Documents' folders.
Not wanting to waste all that space with duplicates, I did what anyone probably would and deleted the EXTRA DUPLICATE set of videos that appeared in one of the replicated 'Documents' folders, then went to the original Documents folder where I put the original set of videos and the videos were GONE in this folder too?!!! What the crap is going on here?!
Now my videos are gone from both Documents folders with no backup since I cut and pasted them from my camera to the Documents folder and ran Crap Cleaner when I deleted the DUPLICATE SET because it was taking up nearly 15 GIGS of space, not just 7.2 as it should have.
Here's my question: somehow I have 2 EXACT LINKED & REPLICATED 'Documents' folders in my Administrator Profile (the one I normally use) and any file I create or delete or modify in one Documents folder, also gets created, deleted or modified in the other 'Documents' folder, is if its somehow synchronizing between the two separate 'Documents' folders. Since each 'Documents' folder is now a clone of each other, the total space that my 'Documents' takes on my hard drive is DOUBLE!!
So how do I figure out which 'Documents' folder is the 'new rouge folder' that appeared this morning (both have identical created & modified time/date stamps) and is making duplicates of any file I tinker with and delete the spare Documents folder, WITHOUT ALSO DELETING the original 'Documents' folder since both 'Documents' folders act like conjoined twins, each folder independently taking up its own space and sectors on my hard drive yet at the same time, acting like one massive unit inseparable?
I've put up some screenshots to help illustrate this double 'Documents' mess if anyone knows about this or can help me figure out a solution or workaround, dunno if its related to a corrupted profile or what, but I'm not running any RAID so I know that's not what it is. I just want to figure this out before it turns into another 'Vista spiral of death sysndrome' before I'm forced into doing something drastic (ie; reformat, upgrade to Windows 7 or switch to a MAC everyone nags me to do!).
Thank you anyone, everyone for helping me with this, you are my only hope! :)
Some Basic SysInfo (if it helps any):
OS: Windows Vista Professional v6.0.6002 Service Pack 2 (Build v6002)
Processor: Dual Core Intel Pentium CPU E2220 @ 2.40GHz
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 8.00 GB DDR Corsair
Boot Device: \Device\HarddiskVolume1 (C:)
Logical Devices: (D:, E:, F:, G:)
RAID: False
System Directory: C:\Windows\System32
Page File: G:\pagefile.sys (64 GB solid-state hdd - dedicated)
GPU: Dell NVIDIA GeForce 9800 (1.00 GB RAM [1,073,741,824 bytes])
DualDocuments.JPG
SizePropertiesOfOneFolderOnly.JPG
SizePropertiesOfBothFoldersCombi.JPG
IdenticalContents.JPG
IdenticalContentsButStill2Seprat.JPG
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
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Glen Knight
The images actually confirm this, if you look in the address bar the location is exactly the same.
1. Goto: Start Menu > Run > Type regedit
2. Goto:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software
Shell Folders
3. Edit String: 'Personal' > Change to the Drive/Folder that you want
as 'My Documents' (contains all your user folders).
4. Close and Restart Your Computer.
After the restart you will no longer have duplicate user folders.
2. Goto:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software
Shell Folders
3. Edit String: 'Personal' > Change to the Drive/Folder that you want
as 'My Documents' (contains all your user folders).
4. Close and Restart Your Computer.
After the restart you will no longer have duplicate user folders.
Please be carefull when modifying the registry!
See here for a solution to the problem: http://forums.techguy.org/windows-xp/665013-solved-duplicate-my-documents-folder.html
See here for a solution to the problem: http://forums.techguy.org/windows-xp/665013-solved-duplicate-my-documents-folder.html
Hi -
One thing that I do not understand here is the path the folders are located in - c:\users\documents
The username is missing! The path should be c:\users\yourusername\docu
How did all those user folders get into c:\users ?
Please run this command -
START | type cmd.exe | RIGHT-click on cmd.exe | select "Run as Administrator" - then paste the command below into the cmd/DOS screen. It will give us a directory listing & tree -
dir /a/b>0 & dir /a/b/s>>0 & tree /a>>0 & echo *************>>0 & tree /a /f >>0 & start notepad 0
A notepad will open w/ results. Save it as a text file & attach to post. Command is repeated in code box.
Regards. . .
jcgriff2
One thing that I do not understand here is the path the folders are located in - c:\users\documents
The username is missing! The path should be c:\users\yourusername\docu
How did all those user folders get into c:\users ?
Please run this command -
START | type cmd.exe | RIGHT-click on cmd.exe | select "Run as Administrator" - then paste the command below into the cmd/DOS screen. It will give us a directory listing & tree -
dir /a/b>0 & dir /a/b/s>>0 & tree /a>>0 & echo *************>>0 & tree /a /f >>0 & start notepad 0
A notepad will open w/ results. Save it as a text file & attach to post. Command is repeated in code box.
Regards. . .
jcgriff2
dir /a/b>0 & dir /a/b/s>>0 & tree /a>>0 & echo *************>>0 & tree /a /f >>0 & start notepad 0
I would assume it is a symbolic link rather than a normal short-cut. See http://techblissonline.com/vista-create-or-delete-ntfs-symbolic-link-or-symlinks/
The docs say you could delete the link by using the rmdir. If you want to go sure that only the symbolic link was deleted I would make a backup of the contents before.
The docs say you could delete the link by using the rmdir. If you want to go sure that only the symbolic link was deleted I would make a backup of the contents before.
If you compare the folder properties you will see that (just an example):
One points to : C:\Users\SENAD\Documents
and other : C:\Users\Public\Documents
This is because at some points you have selected that folder to be 'Shared'.
Now your folder is ghosting to the 'public'.
So you must remove the sharing of the folder.
But if you look closely ,the folder is actually not shared !
Solution is to turn off public file sharing.
To change this setting use Network and Sharing center.
One points to : C:\Users\SENAD\Documents
and other : C:\Users\Public\Documents
This is because at some points you have selected that folder to be 'Shared'.
Now your folder is ghosting to the 'public'.
So you must remove the sharing of the folder.
But if you look closely ,the folder is actually not shared !
Solution is to turn off public file sharing.
To change this setting use Network and Sharing center.
after completing, just move the contents of the public folder into
my doc folder (merge).Then you will see your folder will disappear.
my doc folder (merge).Then you will see your folder will disappear.
here is what to to simply
create another user and start moving your old documents to the new documents that you created
because i beleave that you have a problem with user profile
this solution worked for me
and then you can delete the old user account
create another user and start moving your old documents to the new documents that you created
because i beleave that you have a problem with user profile
this solution worked for me
and then you can delete the old user account